"Water is the source of life. Without water, life is difficult to survive." On the train from Nancun Port to Yancheng, Jin Dalai, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture, was thinking about some questions.

His southbound trip represents the Ministry of Agriculture, with the purpose of examining the crop growth of experimental fields in the dry Pampa area. The Ministry of Agriculture, together with the Northern Seed Company, the National Grain Reserve Depot set up an experimental farm in Yongchun Township and Zhongxing Township, and planted some crops to see what the local agricultural conditions are and whether it really meets expectations.

To be honest, the Ministry of Agriculture still has some ideas about dry Pampa. Since Yancheng Port has become the largest wheat production area in the dry area in the southern region, they have reason to believe that dry Pampa areas similar to their environment are also suitable for the growth of crops such as wheat, corn, sorghum, peanuts, sesame, etc., and make their own contribution to the East Coast food production.

According to the news sent back by the left-behind staff there, the wheat planted has grown well under careful care, and the harvest should be close to the level of Yancheng County. But they also pointed out that if there is a good and sufficient irrigation water source in the local area, the grain yield per mu can be further improved. The Ministry of Agriculture is very interested in this, so they sent their deputy department-level inspector Jin Dalai to set off south and go to the local area to check carefully.

Jindalai departed from Dongfang Port and took a 150-ton inland/offshore universal small steamer. When the small steamer stopped and unloaded at Nancun Port, Jindalai and several entourages did not delay and directly bought a train ticket to Yancheng Port to take the train to the destination.

This train is an old East Coast Star train, and is loaded with a whole truck of metal products, coal, and machinery, so it is like an old cow pulling a broken truck, which is very difficult. When the train left Nancun Port, it was already a little dark. Because I didn’t buy a ticket and the train was a pure freight train, Jindalai and three followers could only sit in the carriage where the furnace stewards were waiting. The fire here was a little hot and the temperature was very high, but Jindalai was a little sleepy by the shaking carriage. After thinking about the construction of a water diversion canal in the Pampa area for a while, he couldn’t help but fall asleep.

There was no place to sleep in the carriage, but Jin Dalai didn't bother to worry about it. He took a bunch of thatch and matted it on his body, and was not afraid of the gray-black coal powder everywhere, so he lay down comfortably. The other three followers were also sleepy. They were really disgusted by the environment of the coal-water truck when they grew up in big cities, because it was not only dirty, but also lice in the pile of thatch. If they fell asleep directly, they would be uneasy. Therefore, they had no choice but to lean on the wall of the carriage and pretend to sleep. At the same time, they kept lamenting that this business trip was a big loss. Not only did they have no delicious food, but they didn't even have a clean sleeping place. Is it necessary to be so miserable? The deputy director of his family was also the grandson of Jin Kela, one of the founders of the agricultural system. The person who lived in a honeypot since childhood did not think it was dirty here. It was really incomprehensible.

The train stopped and stopped until the next morning. Jin Dalai, who had been sleeping for a night, jumped out of the carriage, moved his limbs, and took out a cigarette while smiling, saying, "I slept pretty well last night, better than I thought."

The three followers looked at me, and I looked at you, and they all saw helplessness in the other party's blood-filled eyes. Jindalai ignored them, found a dry open space, sat down, then lit a match, lit a cigarette, and started smoking.

The train stops at the freight yard. There are no crowds of people and noisy shops. Apart from the sounds of the steam boilers that have not yet been extinguished, there are only whistles that the station dispatcher blew from time to time.

"This old motorcycle was eliminated from the north, and it was actually stuffed into the salt-cloth railway. The Ministry of Railways seems to be out of money." After smoking a cigarette, Jin Dalai stood up, patted the ashes on his butt, and then called three followers who carried bags and carried their luggage, saying, "Don't be stunned, find a place to eat first, and then find a way to hire a carriage to Yongchun Township, be quicker!"

The entourages who were also smoking were shocked when they heard this, and immediately put out the cigarette butts and found a place to eat.

There are still many restaurants near the train station. Jindalai is used to eating large restaurants in the capital and Qingdao, so he directly chose a small storefront. He went in and ordered a bottle of wine, a steak, an ostrich meat, and seafood rice. It tasted very good.

The restaurant is also crowded with many ordinary workers, sailors, small merchants, farmers in the city and other social masses. These people sit or squat and are feasting. Most of them order cheap beef, which can provide people with the protein necessary for physical labor. At the same time, the price is very cheap. It is really a popular food for the public. Strictly speaking, this is actually the natural endowment of the East Coast. Although the bison is not born and caused by the Spanish inadvertently, it has become an inexhaustible treasure house of meat in a few days. It is said that it is natural endowment.

Such dietary conditions are indeed difficult for people in mainland Europe to imagine. They are also unimaginable for people on the Indian subcontinent. It is no wonder that every foreigner who immigrated to the East Coast will be surprised when he finds that he can eat beef at will - usually pickled beef because it is cheap enough - it will be so much more. There are tens of millions of bison on the Pampa Plain, and the entire East Coast population is only a few hundred thousand. There are also a large number of beef cattle raised among the people. It is understandable that beef has become a mass food that the lower class can enjoy at will.

After lunch, the few people took a short rest and then took a carriage to Yongchun Township. The first-class national highway leading to Luoyang Prefecture had been built in Yancheng County. The road surface was paved with asphalt, and the carriage was very smooth. Seeing this, Jin Dalai took out a book "The Industrial Revolution of the 17th Century" from his suitcase and started reading it.

As the hope star of the Ministry of Agriculture, Jindalai usually pays great attention to learning. He always has a few books in his suitcase, and he takes them out to read them whenever he has time on his journey, and sometimes he takes notes, which is very serious. For example, this time he went out to work for business, he brought four books to read at any time. The four books were written by local scholars on the East Coast. In addition to the 17th Century Industrial Revolution, which summarizes the founding of the East Coast and the technological development process, his suitcase also includes four books: "Ottoman Empire Research", "Trade Era of the Indian Ocean", and "Flora Picture Book of the New World".

All four books are large and expensive, but they are very efficient in the East Coast, which reflects the consumption capacity and desire for knowledge of the middle class in the East Coast. This is actually normal. The East Coast Republic of China has a strong national strength, a rich economy, and a high living standard for people, which will naturally give rise to cultural consumption demand.

Books and newspapers are just one aspect. In fact, there is also huge demand in the sub-markets such as music, drama, painting, and sculpture. Taking the Mo family's sea engraving instrument factory as an example, all kinds of musical instruments produced by the company, including piano, have become popular among the middle class in China. Especially in some big cities, the sales of expensive instruments such as piano are excellent, which has brought huge profits to the sea engraving instrument factory. In ordinary families, the sales of violins, cellos, pipa, Zhongruan, and guzheng are also very good. For those urban middle class who work on October Avenue or the streets of the Expo, it is also good to buy a few instruments for their children, learn in their spare time, and cultivate sentiment. Perhaps, in the future, his children can still capture the hearts of some girls or boys with these talents, right?

In recent years, various instruments produced by the Sea Engraving Musical Instrument Factory have been exported to Europe on a large scale. Nowadays, who in the upper class in London, who is not proud of buying a Sea Engraving piano? They highly value these instruments from the civilized beacon, and even bought a lot of music scores. People who can play "Autumn Whispers" are generally very cool in social occasions in London and are admired by many people.

The carriage arrived in Yongchun Township later that day. Jin Dalai took out his letter of introduction and ID and moved directly into the cooperative farm. Jin Dalai was still very satisfied with living here with the Chicken Sound Guest. He felt very close to him when he was a child in a family-run farm. He was not unfamiliar with farm life.

He saw many vegetable beds next to the farmhouse where he lived, which planted various vegetables common on the east coast, especially peppers, which were very diverse and mouth-watering. He also talked with the farm managers and learned that these vegetables were growing well, which proved that there was no problem with the soil and sufficient nutrients.

The farm manager also pointed out that if you plant crazily without any maintenance, the soil layer suitable for plant growth will definitely become thinner. The implication is either fallow or fertilize or use expensive chemical fertilizers. Jindalai expressed his understanding that chemical fertilizers are not advisable, but they are still solved by falling and planting nitrogen-fixing crops.

Early the next morning, everyone went to the wheat fields a little further away to visit. The farm manager took the opportunity to complain to Jindalai, the special envoy of the Ministry of Agriculture, saying that the local precipitation was average and the lack of surface runoff was very limited, which put a huge limit on agricultural production. His intention was to hope that the Ministry of Agriculture would restart the water diversion plan that had been shelved for many years, that is, to divert the unreasonable amount of water in the Andes to the dry Pampa Plain and irrigate the farmland here, so that this side would definitely become a huge agricultural production area and provide the country with a large amount of agricultural products for a long time.

To be honest, Argentina had made this plan in later generations and had already put it into practice. At that time, during the military government, it was in power and was decisive and started at one point, but the finances were difficult and the project progress was slow. In addition, the Cabernet War broke out with Britain and the military government collapsed, and the project was completely stopped. When the elected government came to power, it was even more impossible to do such long-term projects. Politicians had no interest in this. In addition, the domestic situation continued to be unstable, and the water diversion project was gradually forgotten in the old paper pile.

The East Coast people first proposed this plan after obtaining the Patagonia platform in the South Cone, but because of the sparse population in the local area, it was rejected at that time. Later, the plan was brought up several times, and the location of the diversion channel was changed to the Pampa Plain, which caused some small-scale discussion, but in the end there was no result.

In recent months, a wave of discussions on the Andes water diversion project has emerged in China. The reason is that La Plata has already been in hand and is about to usher in the largest development operation in history. Naturally, there is no need to worry about the humid Pampa area, while dry Pampa and many places close to the mountainous areas have a lot of precipitation, but lacks surface runoff and is dry overall, so water is urgently needed to be diverted from the mountains.

You should know that the annual precipitation in dry areas may only be more than 400 mm, but the precipitation in mountainous areas is often more than 4,000 mm, and the most are even close to 5,000 mm. What a rich water resource! If a national systematic project can be used effectively, I don’t know how many drinking water problems can be solved by people and animals, and how many fertile fields can be irrigated. Especially the capital Luoyang Prefecture is also in this area. After the population surges in the future, how can you ensure the water supply to the city? Yes, it is OK to rely on Mingjing Lake and other reservoirs, but shouldn’t the water in these reservoirs be replenished?

Jin Dalai originally intended to support this water diversion project. But as a middle-level official of the government, he also knew that the situation inside was very complicated and the cost of the project was too high, which may not be realistic in the short term. Of course, he could not say this in front of everyone, and could only say that he would report to his superiors after he went back. As for whether the superiors would adopt his opinion, only God knows.

Although the government's income is very high now, its expenditure is also very large. There are many large-scale infrastructure projects that have been started at the same time. The amount of money circulating in society is very large, and there is already a lot of inflationary pressure in the country. At such a sensitive moment, if you use tens of millions of yuan of funds to dig a water diversion project, it would be like an old birthday boy who hangs himself and lives too long.

The government is rational and knows when to do what and when not to do what. The so-called water diversion project in Pampa is probably only planned within ten years, and there is no hope in ten years. If you die, spend hundreds of thousands of yuan to start, and the greatest probability is that it is around the capital Luoyang Prefecture. As for other places, wait!

Jin Dalai and his three followers finally stayed in Yongchun Township and Zhongxing Township for a week. During this period, they carefully examined the operating conditions of the cooperative farms between the two places, and the result was very satisfactory. The dry Pampa land is worse than that of northern China in terms of soil nutrients. If developed well, it can become an important dry farming area on the east coast like Yancheng Port. This can be considered when formulating plans in the future.
Chapter completed!